1.6T40 Just breathed alot of oil - Water gone

[Nick]

Just gave the car a run, and a little bit of stick in 2nd (up to about 5-6k)

Smoke started pouring everywhere - Turns out it's decided to breath alot of oil out of theredundant breather hose (i don't have a catch tank)

It was breathing onto the exhaust manifold so i presume thats the main contributor for the smoke - Smoke was pouring out of the bonnet untill i opened it.

It starts fine, no apparent noises - Definetly breathed out of the hose as the hose itself is caped with oil inside.

Engine has had a full rebuild without new piston rings about 400 miles ago.

Also, there was no water in the headertank. Piston rings ? head gasket ? i really am not too sure.

[Nick]

p.s

There is quite alot of oil - Its sprayed on the inside of the bonnet, around the coil, over the right hand side of the head, gearbox e.t.c

Also, it is smoking from the exhaust a bit - but it's cold and usually does this in the cold so i can't say for certain it's smoking oil.

I put my hand over the smoke and it's more water vapour than anything - doesn't appear to oily

[Jon_nova1]

The smoke will be the oil on the manifold burning, i doubt its the gasket, usually you get strange gooey yellow stuff in the breather hose, but lift of the oil cap and look on the inside to make sure, it will be mayonaisy if its gone, not too sure what to say, check the oil level, take out a couple of the spark plugs and if they're wet oily it might be your piston rings

[Nick]

i'm guessing there is not very much oil left in it lol

I'l check the plugs tommorow - I doubt it's the gasket either, the engine was built by a very reputable local engineering outfit

But as i said, the Rings were not changed - but the pistons/bores and rings looked in pretty good condition so were not changed

[benji]

get a catch tank for a start, keep a eye on the levels, i can't see why it should chuck out oil like that it's not as if it's had a hammering. i'm assuming you let it warm up properly before giving it some.

[Jim]

i'm guessing there is not very much oil left in it lol

I'l check the plugs tommorow - I doubt it's the gasket either, the engine was built by a very reputable local engineering outfit

But as i said, the Rings were not changed - but the pistons/bores and rings looked in pretty good condition so were not changed

Don't disregard that it could be gasket failure, even though its been built by a reputable engineering firm. My gasket went after just over 1000miles (literally the weekend before it was due to be rolling roaded). It was a brand new gasket, but I guess every now and then some can fail.

Jim

[Nick]

The lack of water was a con-incidental water leak from the hose between the top of the rad and the head/camhousing.

no oil in the water, no smoke from the exhaust and no mayonaise e.t.c it runs 2 bars on the digidash, and half way when running round town when in traffic so i doubt it's the gasket.

The oil might have been over-filled slightly, but yes i need a catch tank. Just driving normally, a bit of stick to say 5-6k, how much oil should it be breathing ? i'm gonna strap a little evian bottle up and see how it goes

The chap who built the engine has just said it'l have been something bunged up in the breather hose, as it wasn't breathing anything at all untill then. He just reckons it's a backlog of crankcase pressure that decided to go when i booted it to 7k round an S bend

[Snowface]

if you over fill it will spit oil out of crancase breather and also smoke out of exhaust on hardish acceleration. More noticable on hills.

[Dan]

in reply to your "how much oil should it be breathing" the answer is none. After all the work my engine has been given it doesnt loose a drop even after a full days abuse virtually none stop on track :!:

[Lee]

in reply to your "how much oil should it be breathing" the answer is none. After all the work my engine has been given it doesnt loose a drop even after a full days abuse virtually none stop on track :!:

Dont listen to him. His car is a freak :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[benji]

if you over fill it will spit oil out of crancase breather and also smoke out of exhaust on hardish acceleration. More noticable on hills.

ahh, well that depend's if your going up or down. :roll:

[Nick]

I've strapped up a little evian bottle, and it's breathed nothing so far

It felt down on a power, and still does slightly - however it may just be me being paranoid / getting used to driving it

[krobinson]

I had a simaliar problem with my 1.3. On the road, i drove it for around 3000 miles without any trouble. Even with a few blasts up to very high revs it used no oil or water.

After 1000 mile drive to the nurburgring it also didnt use anything. After the first 4 laps it was fine too, which gave me confidence not to check the oil again. 4 laps later it was nearly empty which in turn dryed a bearing.

After steven looked at the engine, it seems a simaliar thing happened, where the crankcase pressureised and threw the oil out the breather.

because of this, i'm upgradeing to the SRI/GSI style breather system, where the crankcase breather is fed into the cam carrier. And the breather is on the rocker cover, which is well designed to actually breath and not spit out oil.

This is what Dan uses, and as he says it gives no trouble, and after speaking to the hill climb guys, they all said this is what they use and gives them no trouble either.

however benji seems to have no trouble with his running just the crankcase breather?

I'm also going to run an oil cooler, have a play with the sump, and run an oil catch tank :)

Keith

[benji]

i have had a few problem with mine, but i check the oil between every session, and there has been a few times where the oil has been full all day then all of a sudden it's on empty. i have also munched a set of hydralic lifters due to oil starvation/high revs

merry christmas

[krobinson]

i have had a few problem with mine, but i check the oil between every session, and there has been a few times where the oil has been full all day then all of a sudden it's on empty. i have also munched a set of hydralic lifters due to oil starvation/high revs

merry christmas

Might be an idea for you to try the new style breather this time then? The spare 1400 engine i used had this breather system and never threw any oil out at all (except the small leak on the sump gasket) So i'm hopeing this will solve all my problems :)

Keith

Merry Christmas too :)

[benji]

whats the difference? is it just the cam cover or the carrier aswell?

[mikey14sr]

The 1.6 cam cover with the box on top, put a breather connection in and pipe it to the crankcase breather? (same as group a build)

[Adam]

Aint anything else different?
I noticed that my old c14nz had a different breather setup than my current engine.
It doesn't have like a breather canister at the back of the block.
And obviously the rocker cover is different and has a plastic breather shield thing inside with a connection for the breather pipe.

[mikey14sr]

My last post was wrong, the group A 1.6 had the crankcase breather blocked off, and a catch tank plumbed in to the rocker cover. Should be quite easy to replicate.

[Nick]

It's alright like it is now . I think the oil was slightly overfilled hence why it chucked a bit out.

Gave it some welly yesterday and it didn't throw any

Thanks for the replies - I didn't want to shaft an engine that'd cost me a small sum

[mikey14sr]

As a precaution for future track abuse, it may be worthwhile getting another sump and a baffle kit from HHM, this will make sure the oil doesn't get thrown up the crank breather under hard cornering.

[c20tbo]

hi, about ur oil problems. what i would do is first take the plugs out check em then do a compresion check on all 4 cylinders that will determane if its ur rings or not or even piston slap, then check if any oil contamination with water. if no probs there can only really be either breather problems or like u said to much oil to start off with its got to go somewhere if its to full! also some engines can suffer from oil surges whilst fast cornering like the c20xe has problems with. even the wrong grade of oil can cause probs.

[Nick]

im running 10-50 oil

I can't even be bothered to take the plugs out and look - it's definetly not burning oil and there are no contaminations in the water.

No smoking whatso-ever unless i start it on a very cold day (and that's just water vapour)

[Atic]

happened the same to me yesterday!!!!!! I was runing fine when i noticed lack of power and loads of smoke. When i saw the oil on the bonnet i thought it was a piston faillure. Still have to do a compression test...